


Something Might Be Right In The World After All

by apocryphile



Category: West Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-15
Updated: 2012-09-15
Packaged: 2017-11-14 08:05:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/513096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocryphile/pseuds/apocryphile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A visit from a Make A Wish kid leaves everyone rather emotional.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Might Be Right In The World After All

**Author's Note:**

> I've been sitting on this story for a very long time now, and even as I prepare the post to publish it I still have some misgivings. I'm very attached to exploring this particular aspect of White House life, and some of you will know of my fondness for "photo moments" - this is a particular favourite. But the subject matter feels a little exploitative of what is a heartbreaking reality for too many families still. So, for your consideration, with reservations. 
> 
> All and any feedback is, as always, most welcome. Thanks for reading!

When Donna appeared in Josh’s doorway after an unusually long absence, Josh had just been beginning to wonder where she was, which meant he didn’t really need to look up to register her presence. When she whispered his name, though, he jerked upright in his seat, more accustomed to a spirited yell from halfway across the bullpen, usually in response to a shout of his own.

She was holding a baby. A very, very small sleeping baby, who based on its clothes – miniature old man’s clothes, Josh thought – seemed to be a boy.

“Uh, Donna…?”

She smiled at him, and shifted the infant in the crook of her arm.

“This is Jackson. His big sister Madison is visiting with the President right now, and she’s not too keen on her new baby brother, so we thought we’d let her have the moment all to herself.”

‘He’s really tiny.”

“He’s two weeks old.”

“Wow. That’s kinda small to be on an outing like this, don’t you think?”

She faltered for a moment before replying, and Josh leaned forward, brow furrowed, worried. 

“I think… I think time is a factor for Maddie.”

“Make A Wish?”

She nodded.

“She has a brain tumor.” She drew in a breath, and Josh could tell she was trying not to let her voice break. “She’s five.”

Josh opened his mouth and closed it again, opting instead to shake his head. He pulled himself out of his chair and walked over to his assistant.

“You OK?”

She nodded, her jaw set in a firm line.

Instinctively, he ran a finger lightly over the baby’s downy head - the little boy had an impressive amount of violently ginger fuzz. Josh’s heart ached at the thought of Jackson’s future, a life lived in the shadow of a tragedy he’d never remember or understand, without the benefit of any happy memories from before. 

Donna shifted the infant against her chest, moving him so he was nestled against one shoulder, her fingers cradling his soft head and her forearm keeping him securely tucked against her body. With her free hand, she reached out and squeezed Josh’s arm.

"The First Lady asked if you’d stop by. She’s been talking to their Mom, I think she wants her to see…”

She trailed off, and he finished for her.

"That I’m OK. That a boy can lose his big sister and be OK.”

She nodded sadly. Her lower lip was trembling.

“Oh, Donna. C’mere.”

He pulled her sideways against him, his forehead against her temple, his arm around her shoulders, and then brought his other hand up to rest against hers on Jackson’s head.

“He is going to be OK.”

He felt her nodding by the friction of her hair against his forehead.

He gave her a minute to compose herself before stepping back. He retrieved his jacket and let her fiddle one-handed with his collar until she was satisfied he was presentable.

He walked half a step behind her to the Oval, stopping a curious reporter in her tracks with a glare. 

Charlie was perched on the edge of his desk and gave them a strange look before walking to the door. Before he knocked he turned back and looked at them again, and hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“I know it’s not my place, but I got to say – seeing the two of you with a baby, it makes it feel like something might be right in the world after all.”

He knocked on the door before either of them could respond, and at the sound of the President’s voice from within they wiped the surprise off their faces.

When they walked into the Oval Office, they found the President standing by the bookshelf near Leo’s door, holding in his arms the palest, skinniest little girl Josh had ever seen. She was wearing a bright pink princess dress, complete with sparkly stones all over the bodice – and she was completely bald. When she turned away from him to look at the new arrivals, the President shot Josh a look of such sadness and helplessness it twisted a knot in his stomach. After a moment his benevolent grandfather expression returned.

“Josh, I’d like you to meet my friend Maddie. She’s five years old and smarter than you’ll ever be.”

Madison giggled, sounding like any other small child having an exciting day. Josh stepped forward and she turned shy, hiding her face and whispering something in the President’s ear. He burst out laughing.

“Joshua, she thinks your hair is silly. I have to say she may have a point.”

Josh made a split second decision he dearly hoped the exhausted-looking woman sitting with the First Lady wouldn’t hate him for. He grinned, and reached out to rub the shiny, bare head.

“At least I have hair.”

He was rewarded with a torrent of fresh giggles, and Maddie twisted away from Jed and grabbed a handful of Josh’s curls. Josh heard Donna laughing softly – and a click, as a photographer he hadn’t noticed before captured a picture that would be reprinted in newspapers and magazines around the world: President Bartlet and Josh facing each other, in profile, Maddie laughing, stretched between them, illuminated by the afternoon sun streaming in to the room. 

He waited until the little girl had had enough of tugging on his unruly mop, and then stepped back, extending his arms in invitation. She grinned but shook her head.

“President Jed was showing me his pretty stones.”

“Very cool. Did he tell you that some of them come from the moon?”

She gasped, and as the President launched into the story, he quietly walked over to where the First Lady was waiting for him.

“Joshua, this is Marcia Tillman, Madison’s Mom.”

Josh tried not to picture his own mother with that haunted look on her face. 

“It’s very nice to meet you, ma’am. Your children are lovely.”

“Thank you. Everyone’s been so kind.”

“It’s the least we can do.”

“I know some people come here asking for more research, more funding, but the doctors say that there isn’t even anything else they can try…”

She dabbed a tissue to her eyes.

“If that changes, let us know.”

Marcia shook her head sadly.

“There really isn’t a lot of time now.”

Josh was struggling to reconcile the laughing child who’d pulled so hard on his hair, skinny as she was, with a medical lost cause. He felt the First Lady’s hand on his arm.

“I’m so sorry for your situation.”

“Thank you… Dr Bartlet told me about… So suddenly, like that, it must have been awful… But… but you’re so successful now, you obviously got through it.”

Josh found himself actually praying, just then, that the various mental health professionals he had relied on would manage to stay a secret, for no other reason than to spare this woman one more worry.

“I was just a little kid… Jackson’s so young. It’s… it’s scary because it’s confusing, and when you’re little and you don’t know how to cheer your parents up… but I never doubted that they loved me. And I would have loved for my sister to be around, but her having been there before… the stories, and other people’s memories too… that was still better than never having had a sister at all.”

Even though she started to cry, he knew he’d said the right thing. As the First Lady comforted their guest, Josh moved back to Donna, who was standing by the window, tears now streaming unchecked down her cheeks. Disregarding where they were and who they were with, he stepped back to her side, and, wrapping his arm around her shoulders again, breathed into her hair. She leaned into his embrace, murmuring to the baby who had begun to stir.

“Are you two going steady?”

Maddie’s voice was clear as a bell. She’d evidently moved on from the moon rocks.

Josh opened his mouth and closed it again. Donna managed to speak first.

“No, sweetie. We’re friends. Josh is my best friend.”

Josh desperately wanted to reciprocate that sentiment, but in typical five-year old fashion, Madison bounced to the next topic, not surprisingly something that was very much on her mind.

“Your hair is really pretty.”

Donna smiled.

“Thank you, Maddie. That’s very kind of you to say.”

“My brother’s hair is stupid.”

Josh jumped in.

“Is it stupider than my hair?”

That laugh again. How was it possible that this firecracker was terminally ill?

She was starting to wilt, though, and when her next tirade against her brother turned into tearful whining, her mother decided it was time to go. It was only when a wheelchair was produced that Josh realized he hadn’t seen her standing the entire time, and the reality of her illness sank in a little more.

They walked the family to their waiting car. Donna relinquished the baby with one last kiss atop his downy head, and then with a round of sleepy high fives from Maddie, they were gone. 

As they drove away, the President turned to Josh and opened his arms. The two men hugged silently. When they parted, Abbey stepped to Jed’s side, and Josh felt Donna’s hand on his back.

“You are my son, now, Joshua, and I’m proud of you. We’re all so proud of you.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“And you, our Donnatella.” The President beamed. “You look good with a baby in your arms.”

Josh could practically feel Donna blushing.

“Thank you sir. He was very sweet, and a real gentleman.”

The President chuckled appreciatively.

“Come, now. Let’s go and see if we can’t somehow make this world a better place for the tiny gentleman with the stupid hair.”

As they followed the First Couple back inside, Donna nudged Josh with her elbow.

“Your hair isn’t stupid, you know.”

He smiled at her.

“As long as you like it, I don’t much care.”

She grinned back.

“I love your hair, Josh.”

He squeezed her hand for a moment, and they turned back towards the bullpen.


End file.
